Toccata from Organ Symphony No. 5 Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937)The way musical instruments work is really rather marvelous. (In particular I’m thinking of pitched musical instruments on which you can play melodies—like trumpets, as opposed ...

Brass instruments go back to at least Biblical times—the ancient Hebrews had them. But being a nomadic shepherding society, making metal tubes would have been beyond them. In fact, making metal pipes received its big impetus in the late Middle Ages to make gun barrels that didn’t blow up, and plenty of them. It’s ...